Education

Jefferson Forest High School English teacher Debra Woodson has been named Bedford County's Teacher of the Year.
Woodson was selected from a group of three finalists that also included Eric Martin, physical education teacher at Stewartsville Elementary and Sandra Brookshier, life science teacher at Bedford Middle School. Those three were selected from the Teachers of the Year that had been named at each school.

The best comment at the Bedford County School Board meeting Thursday night just might have come from Thomas Messier, a student at Bedford Middle School.

Messier, a member of this year’s Student Advisory Council, speaking about the need for improvements at Liberty High School, noted that LHS was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year of being open, adding “so is its gym.”

Georgia Pacific has helped Big Island Elementary School upgrade its technology through the donation of 10 computers.

The donation furthers the school/business partnership between GP and Big Island Elementary.
Representatives from Georgia Pacific recently delivered the 10 Dell Optiplex 7010 computers to the school. Each of these computers came with I5 quad core processors, 4gb RAM, 256gb hard drive, and are licensed for Windows 7.

In an effort to cut $4.8 million from its proposed budget, the Bedford County School Board is looking at cutting 46 teaching and administrative positions this year, in just one cost-savings measure being considered.
The board discussed the revised budget numbers Thursday night and also approved, as part of that cost-savings, its healthcare insurance premiums for the year. Premiums to school employees will go up; so will deductibles.

The Bedford County School Board will move into cut mode Thursday night.
Following a 5 p.m. closed session, the board is scheduled to hold a work session at 6 p.m. in the conference room at the School Board office. The work session will provide a chance for the board to begin cutting $4.8 million from the $42.8 million local funding budget proposal it previously passed and sent to the Board of Supervisors for consideration.

Three of Bedford County’s top teachers have been selected as this year’s finalists for the county’s Teacher of the Year.

Eric Martin, physical education teacher at Stewartsville Elementary; Sandra Brookshier, life science teacher at Bedford Middle School; and Debra Woodson, 11th and 12th grade English teacher at Jefferson Forest High School , are the top finalists. They were selected from the Teachers of the Year at each county school.

School Board chairman Gary Hostutler is frustrated.
Not only are the county supervisors refusing to increase the school system’s budget, they also continue to blame the school board for “begging” for funds for capital improvements, he said Monday night.

In an effort to trim more than $1 million from its budget proposal, the Bedford County School Board voted Thursday to change its health insurance plans for employees.
And more changes may be on the way.
Under the current plans offered to employees, the cost of insurance would have jumped by 28 percent in the upcoming 2014-2015 budget, well over $2 million in additional cost. But the school board is looking for savings from its budget request to the county.